


Collateral Beauty

by BriellaBleu



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-05-04
Updated: 2017-05-18
Packaged: 2018-10-27 23:05:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,740
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10818624
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BriellaBleu/pseuds/BriellaBleu
Summary: As Doomsday draws nearer the reality of her looming demise begins to weigh heavily on Iris and she’s terrified. So she decides to write a letter to the universe for answers–three, to be exact. Based off the movie ‘Collateral Beauty’ starring Will Smith.





	1. Time

Dear Time, 

_I need you._

When I was younger I used to think I had as much of you as I could handle. I used to wish you away when something exciting was happening in my life that couldn’t wait for. I used to beg you to stand still when I had to do something I wasn’t prepared for–but you didn’t listen. 

What is Time anyway but a concept? This idea that we cling to in order to have some type of boundary in our life. A sense of control. We live and die by our watches and alarm clocks. We can’t let a day go by without penciling something into our calendars. It’s meaningless but at the same time it’s everything and honestly…

_I need you._

May 23, 2017 is almost here but I can’t believe that my time ends then. I refuse to believe that. I am so much more than the confines of Time. My life means something. My TIME means something. My story can’t end there. 

_I need you._

I can see Time etched in the rapidly deepening worry lines on my Father’s face. I can see Time in the grief-stricken look Wally gets every time someone mentions my death. I can feel Time around me in the tight embrace Barry holds me in every night as he whispers how much he loves me in my hair. I can feel Time in the electric sizzle that flutters across our skin whenever we make love. Why can’t Time stop for them? Why must it continue to wreck the lives of the men i love the most in the world. It’s not fair. 

_Time, I need you._

An extension. A stay. A continuance…anything. These can’t be my last few weeks. I have plans for my life! I have goals I want to accomplish and dreams that I want fulfilled. My time is not running out, I refuse to believe that. 

_Please._

_Please, I need you._

Time, I need for you to let me go. Take away this ticking clock and let me run free. Let me conquer the world, because I would. Let me marry the love of my life. Let me have his babies and watch them grow. Let me grow old so that I can look back on my life and appreciate what I once had. 

All I need is time, I’ll handle the rest. 

 

Sincerely, 

_Iris West_


	2. Death

_Dear Death,_

I’m not afraid of you.

You don’t scare me.

You won’t consume me.

I am **NOT** afraid of you.

Except…I am. How can I not be?

I’m 28 years old, why am I even thinking about you? Why have you been the center of my every waking thought for four months now? I should be planning my wedding right now. I should be focused on my work. I should be thinking of how excited I am that my father has finally found love again. I should be enjoying being loved myself by the man of my dreams. 

But, no.

I can’t see any of that because all I see is YOU.

You’re the first thing I think about when I wake up and the last thing I think about before I go to sleep. You haunt me in my dreams. You’re this black shadow creeping in the corners of my life just waiting…waiting…waiting. I swear sometimes I can feel the bone-deep cold of your icy dead breath on the back of my neck. It’s those times where I feel as if I’ll never be warm again.

This feeling you induce is like being suffocated. Slowly. You suck all the air out of the room and make it impossible to breathe. I can’t breathe.

**I hate you, Death.**

I hate you for taking away my mother so soon after I reconnected with her. I hate you for being the option Eddie chose when he wanted to save the day. I hate you for cruelly taking Barry’s parents away while he had to watch I hate you for showing up right when I’m at my happiest. I loathe you, Death, for trying to steal my joy.

I put on a brave face, because I refuse to give you the satisfaction of knowing you broke me but I don’t know how much more I can take. I’m strong, I know I’m strong but there is something about knowing the exact date of your death that chips away at you relentlessly until you’re nothing more than a pile of ashes.

Barry worries. He agonizes. He’s helpless.

All because of you.

Oh, how I hate you Death. I hate you more and more each day. You’re a thief and you have no honor. You can’t take MY life. Not without a fight. I don’t care how it works, I don’t care about your rules. I have too much to live for. I have too much love to give. I have plans.

I **AM** marrying the man I love. 

I **AM** going to have beautiful babies with him.

I **AM** going to have kick-ass career. 

I **AM** going to leave my mark on this world. 

So yes, I am afraid of you, Death. Who wouldn’t be? But my fear will never, ever outweigh my will to live. My life does not belong to you. **You can’t have it.**

_Sincerely,_

_Iris West_


	3. Love

_Dear Love,_

Thank you. 

Thank you for my father. Thank you for giving me this selfless man who made me the center of his world from the moment I took my first breath. No matter what was going on in my life I never doubted his love for me. That love is what helped shaped me into the woman I am today. That love gave me strength beyond my wildest imagination because it grounded me. I am who I am because of his love. 

Thank you for my mother. I may not have had her in my life long but her impact will last forever. She gave me life and she loved me as hard as she could for as long as she could. The demons that she struggled with were strong but her love was stronger. So strong that she raised my little brother to be an amazing man all on her own. Love did that. Before she left us she brought us all back together and I will always be thankful for that. She will always have a piece of my heart. 

Someone else with a piece of my heart is my baby brother, Wally. Thank you so much for him. He saved our mother, I know he did. She would have been lost without him but he kept her afloat. He chased her demons away. He is headstrong, stubborn, brave, funny, and a million other amazing things. I can’t imagine my life without him.

Thank you for my love and passion for journalism. Thank you for leading me to something that excites me and drives me daily. I’ve found something that I’m good--no, AMAZING at and I want to do it for another 30 years. I want my words to move people and create change and impact the world. I can do it and I WILL do it. I have to...this can’t be the end for me, right?

Lastly, there’s Barry. My Bartholomew. My love. There are no words that can adequately express how thankful I am for you bringing the sweetest boy in my life. Even under the most dire and tragic circumstances he was a bright light that chased all the darkness away. I fell in love with him that night and I didn’t even realize it. It was effortless. It was the easiest thing I’ve ever done but also the most meaningful. Falling in love with Barry Allen was just like breathing. Being in love with him is even easier. I don’t want to leave him now, not when we’re starting this new amazing adventure together. I want to marry him. I want to walk down the aisle in a too expensive white gown and declare my love and everlasting devotion to the man of my dreams in front of our closest friends and family. I want babies...someday. I want us to hold in our arms something that our love created together. I want to grow old with him. 

Is that really too much to ask? 

Maybe it is, I don’t know...so for now I’ll just be grateful for what I do have and cherish it for every moment that I get to have it. 

 

_Sincerely,_

_Iris West_

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Iris folded the third letter and slipped it inside it’s envelope before sealing it tightly. She turned it over and in wide, sweeping swirls wrote “To Love” It lay on her coffee table flanked by letters penned “To Time” and “To Death”. 

Writing the letters had seemed like a good idea at the time but now that she was done, while she could admit that she felt a little better, she was stuck with three letters written to...concepts or abstract ideas or whatever they were called. She may as well have been writing a letter to air for all the good it would do. Suddenly, she felt foolish and a little bit childish as if she was caught writing letters to the Tooth Fairy or Santa Claus. 

She hastily gathered the envelopes up and looked around the apartment frantically before noticing an old antique box on the second shelf of the bookcase. It was almost out of her reach but with a couple of hops she managed to slide it out enough to where she could grab it. It was the perfect size and the envelopes almost fit perfectly. They were a little too thick so the clasp wouldn’t close all the way, but it close enough so that to the naked eye the box would appear the same as it always did. 

After a few more hops and a hard tap that would make her former volleyball coach proud Iris managed to get the box back in it’s original spot. She had plans to find a better spot for the letters later but for right now the box would do. 

With that mini self-made crisis out of the way Iris breathed a sigh of relief knowing that her words would just be between herself, Time, Death, and Love.

Unfortunately for her, it wouldn’t stay that way...


End file.
